Celebrating Success – Continuing Personal & Professional Development

Bushcraft is at the core of what we do at Frontier Bushcraft. It’s at the core of our outdoor skill-set and it’s at the core of what we teach on our courses as well as how we run our trips and expeditions.

That said, we are not blinkered. We are firm believers in cross training, in working our outdoor muscles in different ways. Experience of other systems, approaches and methodologies is important for personal and professional growth. Developing skill-sets outside but complementary to our core skills is important. It strengthens the whole and forces a reassessment and development of the core.

Working with other outdoor professionals, from mountain guides to deer stalkers, exposes you to varied approaches to the outdoors and a range of quality leadership styles. Training for and testing oneself against a number of outdoor leadership benchmarks can only lead the reflective practitioner to improve their entire game.

This is an approach to both personal and professional development I have always taken. I also encourage people who work with me to follow a similar approach.

Last but by no means least, my good friend and colleague Ray Goodwin saw the release of the 2nd edition of his acclaimed book Canoeing. Amongst other additions, there are new sections and illustrations drawing from the canoe trips Ray and I have made with clients in recent years, including the French River and The Bloodvein River.

Congratulations to Ray Goodwin on the publication of the 2nd edition of his book. The front cover is from one of our trips on the French River.

I’m sure my colleagues will continue to push themselves in 2017, taking their own personal competencies and achievements to the next level. In turn, I hope we can help you with your own personal journey of improvement in bushcraft skills and knowledge in the coming year…

Paul Kirtley is owner and Chief Instructor of Frontier Bushcraft. He has had a lifelong passion for the great outdoors and gains great satisfaction from helping others enjoy it too. Paul writes the UK's leading bushcraft blog as well as for various publications including Bushcraft & Survival Skills Magazine.